The truth behind psychological addiction and video games addiction!
When people talk about addiction, they often mean drug addiction, video games addiction or porn addiction. In truth, addictions are part of our everyday life. As history has shown, humans have always been mindless addicts. In fact, I will make a controversial claim that all remarkable human endeavors feed on some sort of addiction.
Different types of behavioral addictions
First, there is a fundamental difference between physical and psychological addiction.
When addictive substances like alcohol, nicotine or cocaine are consumed, they hijack our ancient mechanics of the nervous system. In other words, they artificially induce an invigorating experience that is hard to describe. They make us feel good and the brain is attached to anything that makes it feel good. When the consumption of cocaine increases the dopamine in the system, the body works to counteract the sudden increase by decreasing the production of dopamine or destroying the dopamine receptors. This is a physical response and it is only half of the equation. Now the body establishes a new normality with the presence of cocaine. If the intake of the substance was substantially reduced, the body detects a malfunction and trigger withdrawal symptoms. So the person needs to keep taking the drug in order to feel normal or take more to get a higher kick. This process acts out in exactly the same way with every other stimuli that makes us feel good.
A more profound addiction on the other hand is the psychological addiction. For example, when a middle aged woman drinks alcohol to alleviate the difficulties of her stressful relationship, her brain associates the pleasure she feels due to alcohol with the stress. So whenever she feels bad about her relationship, she will grab a bottle of alcohol. When this association is deepened over time, a psychological addiction develops. To cure this addiction she must methodically decouple the association by finding other ways to reduce her stress or take away the source of her misery completely. This rehabilitation process is harder to do and takes longer than simply curing the physical withdrawals with various medicines. This is common knowledge to all doctors.
Nevertheless, when I observe the wider world, a similar pattern of psychological addictions are everywhere. Work addiction, shopping addiction, sexual addiction, love addiction, learning addiction, reward addiction, religious addiction, travel addiction etc. According to neuroscientists, the brain creates positive psychological associations with an action or stimulant that fulfills the person’s deepest desires. Our love partners cure our loneliness. Doing difficult work gives us meaning and fulfillment. Shopping provides a sense of freedom. Athletes are addicted to winning because it validates all the hard work they have put into their passion. Humans explore the highest mountains, the deepest caves, the darkest space and the hottest volcanoes because we are addicted to exploration. The act of travelling and the reward of discovering something remarkable creates a very strong positive association which leads to more exploration. This addiction isn’t necessarily bad. In fact, the forefront of our incredible discoveries and inventions are motivated by a kind of maddening drive. This is a big reason for our success as animals. We never sit still and our nervous systems are always on drugs. That’s how we have evolved. Substance addictions are simply a small consequence of our remarkable nature.
What about video games addiction? Is it physical or psychological? It seems that game addictions are deeply psychological for a good reason. Video games not only provide comfort, they also encourage the use of our creativity, challenge our strategic thinking, test our reaction speed, tickle our curiosity and make us feel as if we are a part of a bigger whole. They conjure delicious bite-sized patterns that our brains love to solve. When old people tried playing games (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdQYDpZs6X4), they expressed how difficult they are. They are meant to be difficult and rewarding.
In other words, games are virtual machines perfectly designed to fulfill the human brain’s deepest motivations. Compared to real life which is often boring and too easy, games provide an ongoing challenge the brain profoundly craves. Most of the time, people are just going through the motions like paying mortgages, going to work, writing reports and taking care of kids. In games however, they can be themselves.
Therefore studying how games motivate us will help you create more engagement in your everyday life.